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I am involved in a project which is meant to eventually become open-source and have a code contributor community. Is there any "right" way of doing this and what should/can I expect?
Thanks
There's a pretty good book on this topic, Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel, which is available for free online or in dead tree form if you prefer to read it that way. It would be hard to expand much on it in a single answer. Every project will, of course, be different, so I'd recommend reading that book, and then asking more specific questions about your particular project; answers will depend on the language and platform you use, how active an open source community there already is in your area, what your business model is, and many other factors.
I would recommand using Github or Google Project Hosting (subversion/mercurial), and of course use social media network to promote the project helps too.
You can start something like this - http://wxwidgets.org/develop/
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People say practicing and keeping up to date with the latest technologies makes you a good developer, but what are some lesser known practices you all can suggest for someone currently doing a Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering and wants to stand out in their Master's application abroad?
I've started writing technical articles on Medium, finding open source contributions (which I rarely find for beginner level and any suggestions would be appreciated) and doing coding challenges online. Is there anything else I should be focusing on?
you've got plenty of time. keep learning technologies you're interested in, do projects and develop your skills along the way I'd say. Participate in competitions if you can. Open source contribution is a pretty good step
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You can see lots of briliant ideas in Open source projects. How authors found these ideas whey they don't exist yet?
Should I learn software dynamics, history and trends(Nothing new under the sun?) for that?
I don't want to start another github project called "API to xyz". What should I do??
Scratch an itch. Find something that you feel is a problem or annoying and write some code to solve that problem. Chances are you aren't the only person who is affected by that particular problem.
I believe a lot of software projects, open source or not, start as someone identifying a demand and working to supply it.
Think you're not satisfied with wherever photo management apps you found. Starting (or forking an existing one) with your needs in mind is an option.
What kind of software you would like to use but can find one that suits you? If yours needs are more or less supplied by already existing applications, why not working on improving one you like most?
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When I browse github I have a hard time differentiating high quality code from half-finished crap without taking a serious look at the code. What are some good ways to quickly size up a project? Rubyforge allows people to designate a "Development Status". SourceForge has a "recommend" feature. Is there some feature that I've overlooked? I just look at the number of forks and watchers. Is there a better way? I don't see a checkout count, or any other measure of popularity.
I would check for documentation. Well advanced code should have associated documentation, while fledgling projects are too busy getting their code and architecture done to create documentation, which will probably have to change by the time they release anyway. Basically, writing documentation says to me that you think the code is stable and functional enough for users to be able to benefit from it.
Recent activity is a big one. If the project does not have recent developer commits or there are open bugs, tickets, issues, questions, etc without developer responses then move on.
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I want to start an open source project, but my favourite project name was already used for a framework with the same goal. This project was never popular, there is nothing to download or executable, the project had only two active days with commits at Google Code and is dead since four years. In other words: the project is irrelevant but the name is in use at Google Code and ohloh (the same dead project). The .org domain would be available.
Would it be ok to reuse this project name?
4 years, just 2 active days? Get it and make it better then old dead one ;)
I would advise against it, even if it is clearly dead. Recycling old names can cause a great deal of confusion. Moreover, if the old project has been indexed, then searches for your project or for documentation for your project could accidentally turn up information related to the previous project. There are plenty of good names out there that haven't been taken. Better to brainstorm now than cause confusion later.
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I always have found the open source space interesting but have never actually participated in any projects. I recently had what I thought was a great a idea that was different from other projects I had seen in the area (in case it matters it was a .NET DI framework).
My question is if I have a funky idea should I join an existing project and share my ideas or create a competing project with exactly what I want. There are a few projects in the space the are similar to what I was thinking but they don't quite capture the same ideals.
Is extra competition frown upon in the open source space?
Competition is as important as collaboration in open source. Assuming the licenses are compatible, features and ideas can be cross-pollenating. Everybody wins.
the short answer to this is another question: do you want to contribute to a discussion, or do things your way?
You may want to consider writing it your own way and turning that process into an article that you could submit to CodeProject. Then if there seems to be interest in the article, add it to SourceForge. I've seen a lot of tools and widgets get a quick audience and coding help that way. One that I use often is XPTable, which started as a CodeProject article and eventually became an open source project on SourceForge.
BTW, you'll know if its a hit, because you'll start to get lots of requests for improvement, or people even submitting their own fixes and enhancements to your article.
Thank you for your time. I have decided to contribute directly for the project in some areas they were hurting. By doing so I can help the project and learn from the masters.